ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Functional Plant Ecology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1508665
This article is part of the Research TopicHighlights in Forest Ecology and DynamicsView all 8 articles
Forest loss increases foliar insect and pathogen damage on poplar trees in natural riparian forests
Provisionally accepted
- Luliang University, Luliang, China
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Landscape-scale forest loss threats biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, but its effect on insect herbivory and pathogen infection on trees is not well understood. Little is known about how forest loss alters the effects of biotic and abiotic factors on foliar damages. Here, we assessed the relative importance of forest loss, microclimates, tree community attributes, leaf traits (e.g., specific leaf area, SLA), and arthropod abundance on insect and pathogen damage on laurel poplars in natural riparian forests in Xinjiang, China. We found that forest loss increased foliar insect herbivory directly through reduction of food availability and indirectly through reduction in tree diversity and host resistance (greater SLA). In comparison, forest loss only indirectly increased pathogen infection through lower tree diversity and associated higher SLA. Early season insect herbivory promoted later season pathogen infection. Microclimates were not associated with insect and pathogen damage, nor was arthropod abundance with insect herbivory. Our results suggest that forest loss reduced tree diversity which, in turn, changed host leaf traits and associational resistance and undermined bottom-up controls on insect herbivory and pathogen infection. Comparatively, top-down control of herbivory through predation was not significant. The positive relationship between tree diversity and host resistance (leaf traits, e.g., SLA) may be critical for maintaining forest health and ecosystem functioning in plantations and fragmented natural forests when insect pathogen damage at normal, non-outbreak conditions.
Keywords: Forest loss, Insect herbivory, Morphological leaf traits, pathogen infection, Tree diversity
Received: 09 Oct 2024; Accepted: 19 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Binli Wang, Luliang University, Luliang, China
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